


courage, dear heart

by sarahyyy



Category: HIStory3 - 圈套 | HIStory3: Trap, HIStory3-圈套 | HIStory3: Trapped (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getting Together, Jealousy, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 10:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahyyy/pseuds/sarahyyy
Summary: “I keep telling you to come,” Andy says to Shaofei in lieu of a greeting to either of them, “but you never do. What wind blows you here, darling?”Tang Yi’s gaze snaps to Andy at ‘darling’, but Andy isn’t looking at him.Shaofei doesn’t protest the term of endearment at all, as well.“Hurricane Tang Yi,” Shaofei says, and crooks a grin at Andy.(Or, five times Tang Yi was jealous of Andy, and one time he didn't have to be.)





	courage, dear heart

It starts like this—

Meng Shaofei’s presence becomes a steady constant in Tang Yi’s life. 

Wherever he goes, Shaofei is always close. 

Whatever he does, Shaofei does with him. 

_Whoever he sees_ , well.

Shaofei sees them too.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise, not even a little, especially considering that Shaofei has wormed his way into the hearts of everyone around Tang Yi just as easily as he has with Tang Yi, that the same thing would happen with Andy. 

Tang Yi knows what Andy is like, knows that Andy likes _interesting_ people. And once Shaofei got tired of snapping at Andy every time Andy comes around to see Tang Yi, it’s almost inevitable that Andy would stop seeing him as an annoyance, and more as a person of interest. 

The point is this — that Tang Yi shouldn’t have been surprised to see them together, but _he is_. 

A quick glance at his watch tells him that he was only in his meeting for less than twenty minutes. 

He leaves Shaofei alone for twenty minutes, and here he is, lounging on the couch in the waiting area, with Andy kneeling between his spread legs, massaging his temples.

His jaw tightens when he sees that Shaofei is almost purring under Andy’s touch.

Andy smirks at Shaofei, and says, “What did I tell you? Didn’t I say that I have the best hands this side of the globe?”

“You’re right. _Yeah_ , you’re so right on this one,” Shaofei groans. “Can you do my neck as well?”

Andy does, and Shaofei keeps up with the appreciative groans. 

And Tang Yi? 

Tang Yi feels like _punching_ something because...

Because he’s done this before for Shaofei, too. He’s massaged Shaofei before as well, when he had that bruise on his back, but this is a far cry from the reaction that he’d received from Shaofei then.

Tang Yi will be the first to admit that Andy’s massages are good, _but_. 

But Tang Yi himself can’t be that far off. 

Can he?

His fist clenches almost involuntarily when he sees Andy lean in to murmur something inaudible in Shaofei’s ear, and Shaofei laughs, delighted.

Tang Yi heads back into his office. 

He’s suddenly feeling a lot less hungry — lunch can wait. 

—

He heads to Andy’s bar one night after he’s wrapped up things in the office, because it feels like one of those days, and also because Shaofei keeps muttering about how boring it is that Tang Yi stays in the office so much nowadays. 

It turns out to be a Bad Idea.

Andy and Shaofei are apparently friends now, and Andy seems more excited to see Shaofei than he is to see Tang Yi. 

“I keep telling you to come,” Andy says to Shaofei in lieu of a greeting to either of them, “but you never do. What wind blows you here, darling?” 

Tang Yi’s gaze snaps to Andy at ‘ _darling_ ’, but Andy isn’t looking at him.

Shaofei doesn’t protest the term of endearment at all, as well.

“Hurricane Tang Yi,” Shaofei says, and crooks a grin at Andy. 

“We won’t stay for long,” Tang Yi says. “I was just after a drink.”

Andy looks up at him, and smirks knowingly. “You don’t get to decide how long you stay,” he tells Tang Yi, pressing his palm to Tang Yi’s chest playfully. “I do.” 

Tang Yi rolls his eyes. “If you’re going to be like this, I’m going to go.”

Andy pulls away, making a face. “Go, then,” he tells him. “But I’ll keep Shaofei around for a bit.” He turns to Shaofei. “I’ll make you a drink!” 

“Alright!” Shaofei says cheerily, and then knocks his shoulders against Tang Yi’s. “C’mon, you’ve had a long day, let’s just chill out for a bit.” 

Tang Yi wants to say no. 

He _should_ say no, because it’s dangerous how off-kilter his feelings are right now. 

He’s irritated already, just from Andy’s flirting with Shaofei, from Shaofei’s nonchalance at being flirted with. 

He wants to go home, wants Shaofei to come with him, wants to keep Shaofei all to himself. 

But he knows Andy doesn’t mean any of his flirting, and he knows that Shaofei has been bored all day, and it’s a _good_ thing that Shaofei is getting along with Tang Yi’s friends, isn’t it? 

And so all he does is to roll his eyes at the both of them, and make his way to his usual seat. 

Andy and Shaofei head off in the direction of the bar, chattering happily, and Tang Yi already regrets the whole thing the moment he sits down.

He keeps an eye out on Shaofei and Andy, and he _hates_ that he is watching so closely. 

He hates the wide-eyed look that Shaofei is giving Andy. He hates that he can just _imagine_ that low, appreciative hum that Shaofei no doubt lets out when Andy pulls out a particularly showy bartending trick. He hates the way that Shaofei is leaning forward, attention all on Andy, clearly _impressed_ by Andy.

Most of all, he hates how Shaofei doesn’t turn back to look at him. 

He downs the drink that Andy sends a server over with in one go.

He leaves the bar alone.

—

“Whose texts are so important that you’re not even paying attention to your food?” 

Tang Yi already has a good guess as to the answer, but it still doesn’t make him feel any less irritated when Shaofei looks up with a smile and says, “It’s just Andy, but it’s important.”

No, irritation isn’t it. 

He’s _hurt_. 

Mealtimes are supposed to be _theirs_. 

“Oh?” Tang Yi murmurs. “What’s so important that it can’t wait?” 

“I’m about to stop him from making a bad life decision,” Shaofei tells Tang Yi, and then he turns his phone to show Tang Yi. “Look at _this_. He’s about to buy this. For _NT$30,000_.” 

Tang Yi looks at the photo that Shaofei has brandished.

It’s a photo of Andy in what looks to be a dressing room with velvet curtains. In it, he’s wearing a mesh crop with black jeans that are unnaturally tight, blowing a kiss to the mirror. 

For Shaofei. 

Tang Yi swallows. 

“Does he do this a lot?” he asks. “Ask you for shopping advice?”

“No,” Shaofei says, snorting. “He never asks for advice. He just keeps sending me photos of himself trying on these ridiculous outfits, and expects me to compliment him. Like, _please_.” He glances at the photo in his phone again. “Andy needs to be banned from shopping.” 

“We should go shopping,” Tang Yi says, setting his chopsticks down. 

Shaofei looks up at him, blinks in confusion. “With Andy?”

“No,” Tang Yi says. “Just us.”

“Now?”

Tang Yi nods. 

Shaofei blinks at him again, and then looks down at the spread of dishes before them. “Not _now_ ,” he protests, finally setting his phone down in favour of picking up his neglected pair of chopsticks. “I haven’t finished eating! Look! There’s still like almost a full plate of prawns here!” He picks up a prawn, and sets it on Tang Yi’s bowl. “You haven’t eaten much too! Eat more!” 

Tang Yi smiles. 

—

The next time Tang Yi sees Andy is when Andy shows up at his house —Tang Yi’s _house_ , _Tang Yi’s_ house— looking for _Shaofei_. 

Tang Yi considers Andy to be his friend, but even so, Andy has never shown up to visit him at his house.

He’s just about to comment as such when Shaofei comes down the stairs, saying, “What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for ages!” 

Andy just grins at Tang Yi, and then skips off to Shaofei’s side, tugging Shaofei by his hand, leading him to the couch, even before Tang Yi has a chance to react.

“ _You_ -”

He sighs, and tells himself that it’s a good sign that Shaofei is apparently inviting guests over to Tang Yi’s house now. At the very least, it must mean that he’s making himself comfortable here, that he doesn’t have any immediate plans to leave yet. 

It’s a good thing. 

He’s been telling himself that a lot lately. 

He’s just about to head back upstairs when he hears Shaofei start laughing. Unable to control himself, he heads for the living room, only to see that Shaofei has apparently laughed so hard that he’s toppled forward onto Andy, and Andy’s just gone with the flow and wrapped his arms around Shaofei like- 

Like he’s _entitled_. 

For a terrible, _terrible_ moment, Tang Yi thinks about asking Andy to leave. 

He turns away from the scene before him quickly, and heads upstairs. 

He doesn’t stop thinking about it. 

He doesn’t sleep much that night. 

—

When it happens, when Andy and Shaofei finally kiss, it’s about six weeks into this whole friendship thing they have going on, and really, Tang Yi should’ve been prepared for it, should have seen the signs coming, but it still hits him like a train that’s come out of nowhere. 

He watches as Andy’s fingers curl around Shaofei’s jaw, watches as Shaofei’s lips part for Andy, and the pencil in Tang Yi’s hand snaps from his grip. 

He feels almost as if he’s suffocating, like he’s _choking_ from the woosh of jealousy —and that’s it, that’s the emotion that has been building up inside him; not irritation, not hurt, but _jealousy_ , plain and simple— that goes through him, and it’s the only thing he can do to head back upstairs to his ensuite to splash some cold water on his face. 

It takes him a good three minutes before he finally gets his breathing under control, before he’s sure that he’s no longer shaking.

When he looks up back at the mirror, Andy is there smirking knowingly at him.

“You saw,” he says matter-of-factly. “Are you upset?”

“No,” Tang Yi says tightly, knowing that Andy would know he’s lying. “Why would I be?”

He has no right to be, he thinks angrily. 

Shaofei is not _his_. Shaofei can kiss whoever the fuck he wants. Shaofei could move out right now, and move in with Andy where they can keep kissing in the privacy of their home, and it still wouldn’t be anything that Tang Yi has any right to care about. 

Andy smirks. “You look like you’re about to put a bullet in me.”

“Not anywhere important,” Tang Yi mutters, and Andy laughs.

“Don’t worry,” Andy says easily. “He’s not into me like that. He was just curious — never kissed a boy before and all, y’know? So I told him I’d show him, since you didn’t look like you were about to make a move.” He knocks their shoulders together. “You lasted way longer than I thought you would.”

Tang Yi glares at him. “Have you been doing this on purpose?”

“No,” Andy tells him. “But even if I were, I wouldn’t be sorry. This way it’s fair for him. You kissed me to make him mad first. Now you know how he felt.”

He flashes another smirk at Tang Yi. “Feels terrible doesn’t it?” he asks. “You’re both so gone for each other, Jesus Christ. It’s so embarrassing to look at the both of you pretend you’re not making googly eyes at each other. Sort it out, for fuck’s sake, Ah Yi.”

Tang Yi just shoots him a look.

Andy’s smirk grows. “You know what? Shaofei is a good kisser,” he purrs. “You’re in for a treat.” 

Tang Yi shoves him on the arm. 

Hard. 

—

“I saw you with Andy, just now,” is the first thing Tang Yi says to Shaofei when he goes into Shaofei’s room.

Shaofei flushes. “Oh,” he says, looking away from Tang Yi, and giving into his self-consciousness for a moment, before he collects himself. “So- So what?”

Tang Yi crosses the room, closes the distance between them. “I didn’t like it.” 

“That’s your problem,” Shaofei tells him. “I wasn’t kissing you, what does it matter if you liked it or not?” 

Tang Yi swallows. Says again, quieter this time, “I really didn’t like it.”

Shaofei looks at him for a long moment. And then, says, “It didn’t mean anything.” He shrugs a little. “I just wanted to know.”

“Know what?” 

“I wanted to know why you kissed him that time back in the bar,” Shaofei blurts out. “I thought I might learn something from it.”

“Did you?” Tang Yi asks. 

Shaofei makes a face. “Not really.”

“I did,” Tang Yi offers. 

“Oh?”

“I learnt that it’s a terrible feeling, watching someone I like kiss someone else,” he tells Shaofei. 

Shaofei swallows, eyes widening. “Someone you like.” 

Tang Yi nods. “Someone I adore.”

“...Andy?” Shaofei says. 

“Meng Shaofei, you really do live to torment me,” Tang Yi says, and then he kisses Shaofei.

**Author's Note:**

> LISTEN I wrote most of this either on the train ride to work or back from work, so if there are glaring spelling mistakes, IGNORE THEM. It's already a miracle I managed to get this done, we're counting it as a win. \O/ 
> 
> .......side note lmao remember when I said I was just going to be a casual fan who Has Chill? #NotToday #NotThisYear #NotThisGirl
> 
> As usual, you can find me [here on Tumblr](https://sarah-yyy.tumblr.com/post/184733200088/courage-dear-heart-sarahyyy-history3-%E5%9C%88%E5%A5%97), come say hi! :D


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